Heather Clancy

Heather Clancy is an award-winning business journalist specializing in transformative technology and innovation. Her articles have appeared in Entrepreneur, Fortune Small Business, The International Herald Tribune and The New York Times. In… a past corporate life, Heather was editor of Computer Reseller News. She started her journalism life as a business writer with United Press International in New York. She holds a B.A. in English literature from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, and has a thing for Lewis Carroll.

I am fascinated about how businesses of all sizes can transform their operations through technology -- not just to make themselves more efficient, but to rise above their competitors. That's the theme for my two ZDNet blogs, Small Business Matters and Next-Gen Partner. For SmartPlanet, I'm focused on profiling inspirational and controversial business leaders who have great leadership lessons to share. I also write regularly and passionately about corporate social responsibility and sustainability issues for GreenBiz.com.
Occasionally, I will pop up at an industry conference in some sort of speaking capacity. In cases where an engagement involves a sponsor that may be covered in this blog, that fact will be disclosed in coverage as appropriate.
My corporate writing work usually consists of crafting research white papers about some aspect of technology or moderating Webcasts. In the event that my commentary (in written, audio or video form) mentions a company for which I have provided consulting advice, I will disclose that fact. However, there is no connection between these projects and topics that I cover in my blogs.

It would be really easy to fill up this blog with releases and green-tech-announcements-du-jour, a strategy I admit I use sometimes when I am traveling or way too overwhelmed to think. But usually, I try to take the pulse of the topics that are dominant in a given week and to provide perspective on more than one thing simultaneously.

Snow and my schedule prevented me from getting into New York this week to attend the Consumer Electronics Association's Greener Gadgets conference, but one of my more local colleagues, Andrew Nusca, managed to make it. His coverage, over at our Smart Planet sister blog network, explores the vital role of good design in products that seek to make a green or social impact.

OK, so my friends thought I was nuts for spending nigh-onto $300 on my iPhone a couple of years ago. Now, Amazon wants to charge close to $500 (yes, I know it's officially $489, but have you paid sales tax lately) for the new Kindle DX.

I have been MEANING to write about the Los Angeles-based start-up TechForward for weeks now, but felt like I didn't have enough time to write the truly thoughtful post that it deserved. Now, I'm forcing myself to get off my butt, strangely enough, because I'm having a moral dilemma over what to do with my iPhone.

Thank You

By registering you become a member of the CBS Interactive family of sites and you have read and agree to the Terms of Use, Privacy Policy and Video Services Policy. You agree to receive updates, alerts and promotions from CBS and that CBS may share information about you with our marketing partners so that they may contact you by email or otherwise about their products or services.
You will also receive a complimentary subscription to the ZDNet's Tech Update Today and ZDNet Announcement newsletters. You may unsubscribe from these newsletters at any time.